Dole Terms U.S. Mideast Policy an ‘international Dead End’

September 4, 1979

NEW ORLEANS (Sep. 3)

Sen. Robert Dole (R. Kan.), a potential Presidential candidate in next year’s elections, characterized the Carter Administration’s Middle East policy as an “international dead end.” Addressing the opening session of the Zionist Organization of America’s National Executive Committee meeting here Saturday night, Dole said “We stand dangerously close to a Mideast policy that threatens the very integrity of Israel. As long as America is at the mercy of the Arab oil producers, Israel is at dagger’s point.”

The Senator, President Ford’s running mote in the 1976 election, said “The first tenet of American policy towards the Palestinian question should be to refute the nation that the Palestine Liberation Organization represents the Palestinian people. Just as Israel should not be expected to right the historic wrongs of the Arabs towards their Palestinian brethren, neither should Israel negotiate with terrorists who openly proclaim their objective — the destruction of the State of Israel.”

Dole suggested accepting the late UN Secretary General Dag Hammarsk jold’s policy in 1959 for Arab lands to absorb Arab refugees, “the cost of such resettlement to be paid for by oil revenues.”